When it comes to streaming music, Spotify is the world leader thanks to its nearly 100 million monthly paid subscribers. Now the company is looking to establish dominance in the podcasting space, and it just made a big step towards realizing that goal: Spotify announced today that it has acquired Gimlet Media — the studio behind shows like Homecoming and Reply All — and Anchor, which helps creators to record and distribute podcasts.
Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek said of the acquisitions in a letter:
“Gimlet is one of the best content creators in the world, with unique, celebrated podcast shows like Homecoming, which was recently adapted into a critically acclaimed show on Amazon Prime, and the internet culture hit Reply All. And Anchor has completely reimagined the path to audio creation, enabling creation for the next generation of podcasters worldwide — 15 billion hours of content on the platform during Q4. These companies are best-in-class and together we will offer differentiated and original content. Gimlet and Anchor will position us to become the leading platform for podcast creators around the world and the leading producer of podcasts.”
Ek also wrote about Spotify’s approach to podcasting, saying that it will be similar to their approach to music: “Just as we’ve done with music, our work in podcasting will focus intensively on the curation and customization that users have come to expect from Spotify. We will offer better discovery, data, and monetization to creators. These acquisitions will meaningfully accelerate our path to becoming the world’s leading audio platform, give users around the world access to the best podcast content, and improve the quality of our listening experience while enhancing the Spotify brand.”
He also added, “Based on radio industry data, we believe it is a safe assumption that, over time, more than 20% of all Spotify listening will be non-music content.”
Read Ek’s full letter about the acquisitions here.
